The Johnson Switch building is the only extant historic commercial building remaining in Johnson. The commercial building has served as a grocery store, gas station and is best known for its use as a post office. Despite its various owners and uses, the building is known as the "Johnson Switch" because of the railroad switch located across Main Street (Hwy. 28).
ELABORATION
The original Johnson Post Office was established on March 19, 1887, and was first located in the Johnson Mill (National Register listed 12/12/76) then in the home of Captain Mayes. Goodspeed lists Joseph Ellis and Charles W. Spencer as Post Masters in Johnson in 1887 and1888, respectively. In 1900, Captain G. P. Hanks, a local grocery store owner, was appointed by Theodore Roosevelt as Post Master of Johnson. In 1904 when the Ozark Lime company store burned down, Hanks took the opportunity to build on the lot and relocated his general store and the Johnson Post Office. A historic photograph show the building when it housed an Esso station but the gasoline pumps have since been removed.
The store building changed owners often. In 1906 Hugh Lichlyter began to work for John McClendon, who owned the Johnson Switch Building. By 1910 Hugh, along with Bill and Jack Bennett, had bought the store. By 1916 Hugh owned the store by himself and in that year became Johnson's postmaster. He served as such for thirty years, retiring in 1946. Mrs. Hoyt Combs became the postmaster when Hugh retired and after his death she and her husband purchased the store.
Before post office boxes were installed in the store, a mail route ran throughout Johnson. Arthur Smith was the carrier. He used a bicycle, buggy and finally a motorcycle in traveling his route. Roads were rough and in some places streams had to be forded. Local history relates that in crossing one stream after a rainstorm Mr. Smith lost his mail and nearly drowned.
The Johnson Post Office officially closed in 1975. Incidentally, this is the same year the general store closed. Local newspaper writer Kay B. Hall describes the nostalgic scene common at the post office/general store: "... most anything from feed to gas could be purchased and a game of checkers was nearly always in progress." Despite the "official" closing, Johnson kept the post office open in the Johnson Switch Building as a branch of the Fayetteville Post Office and continued to accept and postmark mail "Johnson, AR."
In 1992, funds were allocated by the city council to build a new post office on land owned by the city. Reasons for relocating the post office were that the community had outgrown the Johnson Switch Building, the original building was one of the state's oldest post offices, and a leaking roof was also sited as a major problem.
The new location of the Johnson Post Office is a few blocks down at 2805 Main Street, across from Johnson's city hall. The new building was designed by local architect Jim Lambeth, constructed by contractor James Hathorn and local stonemason Roy Barrett. While the residents are proud of their new post office with its modern facilities, several residents hope to save the historic Johnson Switch building and use it as a community museum. To this end the metal roof has been replaced in order to stabilize the building.
SIGNIFICANCE
The Johnson Switch is being nominated to the National Register of Historic Places with local significance under Criterion C as an unusual example of a vernacular single story commercial building. Its pressed tin exterior sheathing--molded to resemble brick--was not an uncommon treatment for such small commercial buildings at the turn-of-the-century, when the growth of the state's railroad system made such prefabricated building products cheap and available.
However, its survival to this day is indeed remarkable, and so elevates this otherwise modest structure to a heightened level of historic significance. The building is also being nominated under Criterion A for its association with the early history of the town of Johnson. Historic photographs of the town show that this building is representative of other Johnson one-story commercial buildings. The Johnson Switch building is the only extant historic commercial building remaining in Johnson. The building has served as a gas station, a grocery store and is best known for its use as a post office. The building is now owned by Rick Allen of Siloam Springs and is leased by B. W. Dykes who plans to use it as a museum.
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